Topic / Focus

This unit on machines, data, and AI opens by asking how computers compute at all: materials, electricity, transistors, chips, architecture, and logic. Grounding this material basis matters before we talk about what AI systems can and cannot do.

Format: Full class · Lesson template: Concept + Lab

Guiding Questions

• What are computers physically made of, and how does that enable computation?
• How do transistors and logic gates become higher-level computation?
• Why does AI’s material infrastructure matter for who holds power over it?

In This Class

In this meeting, we will:

• walk through the physical basis of computing: materials, transistors, logic
• connect material infrastructure to where power can concentrate
• preview computing’s physical costs, covered in the next meeting